Untold Love Story
by realityescaper10
Summary: We all know the story of the bow and the umbrella, but were we ever told about what happened between Phoebe and Gerald in pre-school? This story is my take on what I think could have happened to spark their crushes on one another.
1. First meeting

**Chapter 1: First Meeting**

**_I knew I said I wasn't going to post anything new until I finished my other story, but I really wanted to post this. I hope you enjoy!_**

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It was a dark September morning. Gray clouds covered the dawn sky. It was clearly going to rain. The children all ran wild in the front entrance of Urban Tots. It was their first official day of school. Some children happily waved good-bye to their parents and scurried off to play with the other kids. Others clung to their mother's legs as the fathers tried in vain to remove their little claws from their wives' flesh. As the commotion continued, a silver mini van pulled up in front of the school and out stepped a little girl with round glasses. She clenched her books across her chest and gazed around the lot at her new classmates.

_I can't believe it's finally hear_, she thought to herself eagerly awaiting the day ahead. Phoebe had been looking forward to school since the day she could talk. As a young toddler Phoebe had always loved to learn. She would explore her environment and find solutions to the problems that she faced in her day-to-day life. Everything from learning to walk to learning how to work the remote control for her television were all exciting wonders to her young mind and she ached to learn more. Being in school was just the beginning of her life long journey of knowledge. Despite the weather, nothing could damper her mood.

Shortly after, another blue car pulled up behind Phoebe's. A young boy with tall hair and red _33_ shirt hopped out of the front seat with his small, green back pack in head. Before the boy's father could even step out of the car he'd already ran off and began to socialize with all the other children. He quickly started to make friends due to his outgoing personality and charm.

Gerald had been looking forward to school for weeks, not because he wanted to learn anything, he just wanted to make new friends. The only other kids in his life were his siblings, Jaime O and Timberly. Jaime O was twelve years old. When they were younger they used to be best friends. Now that Jamie O is a pre-teen he finds it embarrassing to be seen with his younger brother. He spent most of his interactions with Gerald just bullying him. This upset Gerald at first, but he's now gotten used to it. His sister, Timberly is only one year old. Gerald tried to spend his time with her, but she's just a baby. She spends most of her time asleep, crying, eating, or playing with dolls or stuffed animals. Gerald looked forward to playing with children his own age for once.

Soon enough a short, heavy set woman emerged from the front entrance of the building. "She must be the teacher", whispered one of the students in the crowd. She had a smile on her face that could light up an an entire arena as she greeted all the new faces.

"Good morning boys and girls! I'm Mrs. Applebaum and I will be you new teacher. Now let's say good-bye to Mommy and Daddy and come on in before it starts to rain", she said waving the children into the building.

Phoebe's eyes lit up with joy as she walked to the front door, on the way imagining what her first day would be like. Like Phoebe, many other students were exciting as well and shoved their way through the crowd and raced to get to the building first. Suddenly Phoebe felt a push from behind her and before she knew it

**_THUD!_**

She hit the ground losing her books and her glasses during the fall. The students who bumped into her hadn't even realized. Phoebe let out a whimper and blindly crawled along the blacktop in search for her belongings.

No one seemed to notice the poor girl struggling until Gerald turned his head at just the right time before stepping through the door of the school. He instantly felt sorry for her and ran up to her to help. He quickly spotted the glasses on the gravel floor just a few feet in front of the small girl.

"Were you looking for these?", the young boy said as he picked up the glasses and held them out in front of her.

Suddenly Phoebe's head jerked up toward Gerald. She could only see a fuzzy outline of the mysterious boy who she assumed was one of her classmates, but Gerald could see just fine. _Wow, she's beautiful_, he thought as he gazed into her dark eyes. He almost didn't want to give the glasses back so he could stare into her alluring eyes forever.

"Y-yes, I was", Phoebe said, "thank you." She gently took the glasses out of the boy's hand and placed them back on her head which then revealed her knight in shinning armor.

"I-it looks like you dropped some books, too", Gerald nervously pointed out. "Here, let me get them for you." Gerald swiftly gathered all her books off the floor and placed them slowly into her hands.

"Oh, that was awfully nice. You didn't have to do that."

"Don't mention it", Gerald said timidly scratched the back of his neck and looked down at the gravel floor. He then put his hands in his pockets, kicked a nearby rock and said, "Say, how about we get to class. Wouldn't want to be late on the first day now would we?"

"R-right, of course not", Phoebe stuttered as she tried to play it cool around her new crush. The two then scampered toward the entrance of Urban Tots. Gerald sped up ahead of Phoebe and held the door open for her. Phoebe giggled and thanked him. Gerald could only watch as she gracefully walked by him and into the classroom. He couldn't help but think how angelic she was and how he'd do anything to talk with her again. More importantly, he had to figure out her name.

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**_I hope you enjoyed this. Now, generally that's kind of all you guys need to know about how they met. I have another chapter like half written so if you guys want to see more in depth about how their story unfolds then let me know you like it. If not I'll just end it here... that it unless I get bored and finish the story anyway :P_**


	2. What is this feeling?

**Chapter 2: What is this feeling?**

**_Thanks for the reviews for my last chapter. So here it is, I present you with chapter two. I hope you like it. _**

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****As soon as the two entered the classroom they noticed a strict distinction and division between the children at Urban Tots. Boys were to the right, and girls were to the left. This hadn't been assigned by the teacher or anything, the children just naturally wanted to stick with their own gender. At this age, girls were still _yucky_ and boys had _cooties_. Gerald and Phoebe went their separate ways, but both caught themselves glancing back at the other from time to time with a smile across their faces.

Gerald noticed a group of boys playing with blocks and soon joined them with ease. Phoebe, being more reserved just sat at a table alone. Out of the corner of her eye she saw a small blonde girl enter the classroom. Her pink outfit was drenched with rain and stained with a great deal of mud. The girl plopped down in the seat next to Phoebe and placed her hands under her chin and let out an exaggerated, lovesick sigh.

Phoebe nervously got up the courage to introduce herself to the pig-tailed girl. "H-hi. I'm Phoebe", she said as she formally stuck her small hand out to the girl.

"I'm Helga", she said not even taking notice to Phoebe's gesture.

"If you don't mind my asking, what are you staring at?"

"That boy with the unique shaped head over there. I don't know his name, but I wanna marry him", she said as her mind trailed off into her own fantasy land. Phoebe looked over at the corn flower haired boy and saw that he was joining the group Gerald had been playing with. Although she'd only meant to look for a second, Phoebe found her eyes were glued on Gerald's as she watched him play.

The two sat lovestruck as the Mrs. Applebaum drew her attention to the class.

"Children, pay attention. That's enough free play time. Let's all gather around and form a circle on the carpet."

All the children huddled onto the carpet and crossed their legs in a traditional pretzel formation. Mrs. Applebaum began to introduce the activity as she pulled up a chair to sit in.

"Now, since we are all new here and don't quite know each other yet, I thought we'd start with a little introduction. We could go around the circle and have each student tell us their name, and one fun fact about themselves. Hmm... let's see, how about we start with...you, dear!" Mrs. Applebaum said pointing her index finger out in Phoebe's direction. Gerald's eyes immediately widened with interest and he focused all his attention on Phoebe.

"M-me?" Phoebe timidly asked hoping that she hadn't just been picked to go first.

"Yes, you, honey. Go on, we're listening", Mrs. Applebaum encouraged.

"W-well, my name is Phoebe Heyerdahl," Phoebe softly stated. Gerald listened attentively to her from the opposite end of the red, circular rug. _Phoebe_, he thought. The name rung in his ear like wind chimes in the breeze. He'd never heard such a beautiful name before. Gerald lingered on Phoebe's voice as she began to muster up the courage to speak again.

"Yes, now what's one thing about you? Do you have any talents or hobbies...?" Mrs. Applebaum asked.

"Uhm, I really like to learn. I have a strong yearning for knowledge", she proudly confessed when a roar of laughter broke out among the students.

"Oooh, Phoebe likes to learn, ha-ha!", a chubby kid named Harold mocked. "What a loser!"

Gerald looked over at Harold and give him a death glare as he clenched his fists so hard that his nails left indents in his palms. He wanted so bad to just lean over and slug the large child, but he was afraid of getting in trouble with the teacher. More importantly, he was afraid what the other students might think. Not only is Phoebe a girl, but she is also now considered a geek. If he defended her, would he get laughed at and made fun of, too? He loosened his grip releasing his fist and tried to calm himself down. He wanted to stop feeling this way about Phoebe. These new feelings were scary to him, and would probably lead him to a life of mockery.

Phoebe sunk her head down in shame. She thought she was coming to a place where learning was the central element and purpose. How could this have made her the laughing stock? She looked over at Gerald who now had his head down. The sweet boy who had helped this morning couldn't even look at her now.

Eventually the laughter subsided and people began to continue introducing themselves. Mrs. Applebaum called on child after child, eventually reaching Gerald. he introduced himself with such ease and confidence. Phoebe sat and admired him from afar. She realized that Gerald could never have the same feelings about her that she had for him. They were just too different.

She forced herself to get through the rest of the day, despite the frequent giggles she heard directed toward her. When she got home she threw herself onto her futon and cried. She didn't realize before that school would be so hard. She didn't want to go back.

Gerald, too, sat up in his bed that night. Every time he would doze off all he could see was Phoebe in his dreams. He couldn't understand why he was feeling the way he did, or what this feeling even was. All he knew was that he couldn't shake her from his mind.

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**_Thanks for reading. I'm glad people seemed to like my last chapter. Sorry if this didn't live up to it's expectations, but if it did then yay! :)_**


	3. It's Love

**Chapter 3: It's Love**

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****It was now February, 5 months since the school year had began for all the children. A lot has changed in Hillwood since that very first day of school. The cool autumn breeze had now turned into a crisp winter air. The colorful leaves had now fallen off their trees being gently covered by a blanket of freshly fallen snow. Although the atmoshphere had changed, the one thing that continued to remain the same was inside the walls of Urban Tots.

Phoebe still continued to be the target for all the school bullies along side her new best friend, Helga Pataki. The children had all turned on Helga once they became suspicious of her reactions toward the kind gestures of Arnold Shortman. Unlike Phoebe, something inside Helga snapped. She wouldn't just sit back and take the student's bullying which led to the emergence of "Old Betsey" and the "Five Avengers." Helga had changed. She became more angry and mean, even toward her friend, but Phoebe didn't mind. At least she had a friend. She appreciated Helga's friendship regardless of how she may have treated her at times.

Gerald, on the other hand, was popular among everyone. He became close friends with every boy in the class, particularly Arnold. The two were practically inseparable and had even developed a secret handshake, but that handshake wasn't Gerald's only secret. After 5 months of school he still harbored feelings for that little Asian girl named in his class. Everyday he saw Phoebe's angelic face he felt as if his stomach had been flipped upside down. Although he still wasn't sure what this feeling was or why he felt it, Gerald attempted to explain it as best as he could to his most trustworthy friend. Arnold thought Gerald needed to tell Phoebe about his pent up emotions toward her, but Gerald couldn't find a way to tell her without saying it out loud for everyone to hear. He didn't want anyone to know that didn't have to. He didn't want to become the school's next reject.

It was a typical Monday morning when the class walked into Urban Tots to see it had been fully decorated from wall to wall with paper hearts and pictures of a strange looking baby with a bow and arrow. Gerald didn't understand what this was all about and neither did the other students, but Phoebe thought it was beautiful. She felt as if she had just stepped into some kind of wonderland.

"Hey Teach, what's with all the lame stuff all over the place?" Helga sourly asked.

"You don't know? What? I can't believe no one has ever told you all about St. Valentine!"

All the student's stared at her in confusion, with the exception of Phoebe who felt as if she had heard of this before.

"Well then, I guess it's up to me! How about you all gather around the story time chair and I'll tell you all about the tale of St. Valentine", Mrs. Applebaum said as she sat down beginning surrounded by children in all directions who eagerly awaited the story.

"A long, long time ago in Europe there was a very mean ruler named Emperor Claudius. He was so mean that people even called him 'Claudius the Cruel'. Back then Europe was undergoing a lot of wars, but no one wanted to fight in them because they didn't want to leave their wives behind. So Claudius forbid all marriages in his Empire. There was one man, though, who wouldn't stand for this. He was a priest named Valentine. In order to make things right he began to secretly marry couples behind the Emperor's back. He risked his life for love. This is why we celebrate him to this day."

"How do we celebrate him?" Arnold curiously asked his teacher.

"Good question, Arnold. What we do is we show the ones we love how much we care about them by giving them gifts and cards that express our feelings."

"Oh gosh, that sounds wonderful, but how do we know when we are in love?" Sheena wondered.

"I don't know, Sheena", Mrs. Applebaum said as she gently pat Sheena on the head. "It's hard to describe. When you're in love you just kind of know. You get that funny feeling in your tummy", she said tickling Sheena's stomach, "and your heart feels all warm and fuzzy whenever you think about them."

Just then Gerald looked over at Phoebe and stared at her for a few seconds when he suddenly realized that was it. He was in love with Phoebe Heyerdahl.

"Well that sounds like a bunch of sissy, girl stuff!" Harold proclaimed.

"It's too bad you feel that way, Harold, because this Friday is Valentines Day so all week we will be working on Valentines Day projects and activities."

"Really?" Rhonda asked as she shot up and sat down on the arm of Mrs. Applesauce's chair. "What kind of projects? This all just sounds so romantic!"

"We're going to be making cards for each other so that you can tell one another how much you mean to them. We're also going to be making Valentine's Day mail boxes that you can collect all your cards in."

"Willikers, but does that mean we gotta make cards for the girls, too?" Stinky asked in disgust as he rolled his eyes.

"I'd like it if you made cards for all your classmates, but it's up to you, Stinky."

Right then Gerald knew just what he needed to do. He discovered how to confess his feelings of _love_ to Phoebe. All he needed to do was make her a card.


	4. Valentine's Day

**Chapter 4: Valentine's Day**

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Friday quickly came and the students were all very excited to be having their first Valentine's Day celebration. All week long the children had been working hard on cards for the other students in the class. Mrs. Applebaum had supplied them with scissors, glue, stickers, colored pencils, crayons, markers, and construction paper of all the colors of the rainbow. She also gave them each a white shoebox which she had personally cut a hole in at the top of each. This would be their card box, and along with their cards they were free to decorate these in any way they wanted to as well.

All day long the children anticipated snack time, which was when Mrs. Applebaum would begin the party. They were all at recess when they heard the bell ring indicating to go back to class. Mrs. Applebaum always held snack time after recess so all the kids rushed back to the classroom and headed straight for the back closet which contained their boxes. Helga had sent Phoebe to get her box for her. Phoebe struggled to carry them both, but eventually got back to the table and plopped them down releasing a sign of relief from the loss of weight from her arms.

Phoebe was proud of the box she made. Her box was coated with pink construction paper. The the paper she'd worked especially hard to draw a string on red hearts evenly spaced out and proportioned. Along each corner of the box, and outlining each heart with a layer of silver glitter. She glanced over at Helga's box and was slightly disappointed.

"Helga, I couldn't help but notice your box is still completely blank. You only wrote you name sloppily on the top in pen", Phoebe timidly informed.

"Yeah, so?" Helga scowled back.

"I was just wondering why you didn't decorate it."

"Because I think this whole thing is stupid!"

"But I could have sworn I saw you making a card yesterday. It was a pink heart with white frills around the edges. Who was that for?"

Helga immediately got defensive and raised her voice. "Psh, me? Helga G. Pataki making a Valentine's Day card? No way!" Helga opened her back pack and peeked into her lunchbox. It was empty, other than a pink heart like Phoebe had described. but now it had a picture of the little football headed boy taped in the center. She let out a small sigh.

"Oh, I just thought it might-"

"Whatever you thought, you were wrong! Besides, it's not like _we're_ gonna be getting any cards anyway."

"Yeah, I guess you're right", Phoebe said, her optimistic smile fading as she slumped down into her chair.

Meanwhile Gerald also scampered toward his table with his mail box. Arnold was already there sorting out the large amount of cards that he'd made.

"Wow, Arnold, you made a lot of cards", Gerald announced.

"I made one for everyone in the class. Everybody deserves love on Valentine's Day, Gerald" Arnold sweetly said with a smile.

"Not everyone. Not people like Helga G. Pataki or Harold."

"They're not so bad, but I bet I know someone you did make a card for", Arnold hinted, nudging Gerald's side with his elbow.

"Yeah, I did, but I was too scared to use my name just in case someone else were to see it. I still hope she likes it."

Mrs. Applebaum walked into the center of the room and made an announcement. "Okay, boys and girls, the party has begun! You can begin to walk around a place your cards in people's boxes, and you can also go and grab a treat from the table by the blackboard."

"A treat? Alright!", Harold exclaimed running toward the snack table.

In the meantime the rest of the children seemed more interested in handing out their cards. The children scurried around the classroom placing each Valentine into it's designated owners box. Some students made for everyone, other made for their gender only, some just made for their friends, and others didn't make them at all. After they delivered them they all went to get a snack and rushed back to their table to read their Valentines Day cards.

"So Helga, did you get any cards?" Phoebe asked.

"I doubt it", Helga said as she opened the box surprised to see two cards waiting for her inside. She opened the first one and discovered it was from Phoebe. She thanked her and proceeded to the next one which was from Arnold. After reading it she held it up against her heart and let a lovestruck sign escape her mouth. Quickly realizing what she did she threw the card back into the box and slammed the lid down. In a panic she hastily asked, "How about you Phoebe? Get anything?"

Phoebe already knew Helga didn't make any cards which was her last hope. She opened the box expected to see it empty but found one lone card waiting for her. Through the misspellings and sloppy hand-writing she was able to make out this much from it:

_"To Phoebe, _

_Remember when Mrs. Applebaum told us what love was? Well I've felt that about you since the day we met. You are the cutest girl with the prettiest eyes I've ever seen. Have a Happy Valentine's Day._

_Love, Your secret admirer" _

__Phoebe was suddenly interrupted by a crude voice coming from her right side.

"Ooh, Phoebe got a card! I wonder who that's from", Harold began to tease. Phoebe's eyes began to water when another voice shattered Harold's saying, "It was me."

Gerald stepped forward letting everyone know it was him that had spoken up. "I wrote that card. And I don't care if Phoebe is a girl, or if you all think shes just a geek. I like Phoebe a lot, so if anyone has a problem with that than that's just too bad." Gerald raised a fist to Harold as he looked down and smiled at Phoebe giving her a wink. Phoebe smiled back in disbelief of what had happened.

Harold immediately backed up and apologized as he ran back to the snack table screaming for his mommy. Gerald chuckled and sat down at Phoebe and Helga's table waving Arnold over to come join them. The four then sat together enjoying the rest of the Valentine's Day party in each others company.

Not only had Gerald broken the gender barrier, but he'd also taken away the social stigma that the class had put on Phoebe making her accepted by the other students. Although they may not have talked about their feelings out loud for each other right away, they both really knew how the other felt about them. They remained close friends for years until they'd finally reached the maturity level to confess their feelings aloud.

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**_The End! Sorry if the ending was a bit hasty and rushed sounding. I wasn't sure how to end this. I did the best I could, I hope you enjoyed it at least a little bit :) _**


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